Half term. Children on the loose. Cue some Giving Nature a Home in Cardiff action.
This week we wheeled our Bugbarrow to St David’s shopping centre, smack bang in the middle of Cardiff.
Full of slugs, mud, snails, woodlice and leaves our Bugbarrow captured the attention of so many children and their parents who downed shopping bags and joined us to hunt for creepy crawlies instead. Lots of squeals and squeaks popped out as children spent some quality time with nature in an otherwise low nature zone.
Through our Giving Nature a Home in Cardiff project we want to encourage children to spend more time with nature, and to help make this happen we’re keen to go where the children are. On this occasion it was Cardiff’s main shopping centre, visited everyday by hundreds of thousands of people.
As well as a barrow of bugs, we took pop-up trees and instant grass, baskets full of logs, cones, leaves and natural objects and let children do the rest; building and exploring the objects they found, with one little customer happily hanging all the cones she found in the basket on our pop-up trees. Perfect!
Children also made themselves at home on our picnic blanket to build their own bug homes and followed our picture trail to spot the minibeasts that might move in.
Whilst the children (in true bug style) were busy, our day at St David’s had extra sparkle with three new RSPB members signing up and several primary school teachers ready to sign up their class for a Giving Nature a Home in Cardiff school session, which we’re delivering for free as part of the project.
And after a busy day in the shops, we’re off to do it all again at the Norwegian Church in Cardiff Bay, on Halloween. Eeek!
For more information about our free Giving Nature a Home in School sessions, check this blog too.